How to Fix “Unfortunately, Camera Has Stopped” On Android

Cameras are an important part of our Android phones. We love to capture all those lovely moments, we enjoy taking selfies and then there are aspects of our environment that can hardly be left without being photographed. So what do we do when our phone’s camera stops working? We look for the quickest way to fix the problem so that we can go back to exploring the photographer within us. If you are looking for solutions for how to fix “Unfortunately Camera Has Stopped” then check the solutions below.

An error like this can hardly occur because of the hardware. It is usually the software that is responsible for it. We will discuss all the solutions starting from the very basic one and then we’ll move to the more complex fixes.

Solutions for “Unfortunately camera has stopped”

Solution 1: Restart the Camera

Your Android device can show this error at times when the camera has been in use for a long period of time. Simply exiting the camera, waiting for 30 seconds and then restarting the app by tapping on the app icon is all it takes to fix a problem like this. When you encounter “unfortunately camera has stopped working” error, this is the best way to resolve it quickly. However, the solution may be temporary and if the problem reoccurs too frequently then you must try the other solutions listed here.

Solution 2: Restart the Device

Restarting the phone can often fix simple app glitches which may create a problem in the application. Usually, when a problem is fixed by a restart, it is difficult to trace the actual cause of the problem. If the camera has stopped working without any reason then a restart is a quick and easy fix. However, if your Android device continues to show the same error then the problem may be more than a glitch, it can be a corrupted file or an update which may be causing this.

Solution 3: Clear the Camera Cache Files

Your camera’s cache stores the files which help the camera app to work faster. Cache files are created for ease of use and better user experience. However, sometimes these cache files may get corrupted and it can start bringing up errors which will not allow you to use the camera. To fix the problem, we can clear the cache files. You will not lose any important data in doing so. The only thing you may notice is that the next time you open your camera app, it will take some time to load.

Go to the Settings menu of your device.

Head to the Apps sections and tap on Application manager

Swipe to the left of your screen till you are under the “All” tab.

Now look for camera and tap on it

Tap on Force Stop to end the application

Then tap on Clear Cache

You will notice that the cache files will be instantly deleted and the space taken up by the cache files will return to 0. Now open the camera once again and check if the problem is fixed.

Solution 4: Clear the Camera Data Files

While the cache files are relatively harmless and deleting them does not affect anything on your device, the data files include your personal settings for the app. This means that you lose your personal preferences if you delete the data files. If you have set some preferences on the camera then you may want to take note of it before you delete the data files. You can then go back and set them up once again.

Go to the Settings menu of the device and head into Application Manager.

Swipe to go to the “All Tab” and then tap on Camera

Tap on Clear Data to delete all the data files linked to the camera app.

The data files will not delete your photos so you do not have to worry about them. Once the data files are deleted, tap on camera and check if it is working as expected. If the error still shows up then proceed to the next solution.

Solution 5: Update Your Software

Certain camera problems may occur because of a bug in the software which is causing the camera not to work properly. If you have been delaying the software updates on your device for a long time then there is a chance that you may have missed on necessary updates that can help your device’s apps work properly. An update helps you solve known issues in the software. To check if you have any pending updates, follow these steps:

Go to the Settings menu of the device

Tap on About Device

Tap on the first option which should say Software update or System update

Your device will automatically begin to check for updates and you will get a message which will either tell you that the latest updates have been installed on the device already or it will say that an update is available and you can update the device. If an update is available then install the update and once your device restarts, check if the camera is working.

Solution 6: Delete the Cache and Data Files for the Gallery App

The gallery is very closely linked to the camera. If anything goes wrong with the gallery app, it can often creep into the camera and end up with an error message. Deleting the cache and data files of the gallery app can be helpful in finding out if the gallery app was the culprit.

From the Settings menu, go to Application Manager

Swipe through the tabs to go to “All” tabs

Look for Gallery and tap on it.

Tap on Force Stop

Now Tap on Clear Cache to clear the cache

Then tap on Clear Data to wipe the data files for Gallery

Confirm by Tapping on OK

Now restart your device and check if the camera is working as expected.

Solution 7: Use a Third Party Camera App

If you are comfortable dumping the stock camera app, then open the Play Store and look for a third party camera app. There are quite a few of those available and some of them may offer you more than the current stock camera app that you were using. This is just an alternative which doesn’t fix the problem but helps you to continue using your device without errors. The use of a third party app is solely your discretion.

Solution 8: Use Safe Mode

If you happen to like the camera app and you prefer fixing it rather than using a third party app, then we must get into some complex troubleshooting. We need to figure if the problem arises from any of the apps that you recently installed. Certain flashlight apps are known to create problems for the camera app. To check if a third party app is causing the problem, you must restart your device in Safe Mode. In the safe mode, all third party apps are disabled so we can narrow down the cause of the problem being in a third party app or the phone’s software.

Press and hold the Power key

This will bring up the Power options for your device

Now press and hold the Power Off option from the menu on your screen.

Continue pressing it till you get a pop-up box

You will be asked if you want to restart the device in Safe Mode.

Tap OK

Once the device restarts in Safe Mode, check if it opens with any errors. If yes, then proceed to the next solution. On the other hand, if the camera works without errors then a third party app may be interfering with the camera app causing the problem. Delete recently installed apps or go for a factory data reset.

Solution 9: Factory Reset

A factory reset will bring your device to its initial state. It means that the device is going to go back to the factory settings. You will lose all data and all third party apps installed on your device. A back up will help you save all your important data and ensure that you do not lose any of it. Make sure you create a backup for all the data by moving all important files to another storage device and by backing up your account on Google. Then proceed with the reset.

Go to the Settings menu of your device

Tap on Backup and Reset

Check the box next to backup to back-up your data on your Google account

Tap on Factory Reset to reset the device to factory settings

Tap Reset phone.

Once the device restarts, check if the camera is working. If yes, then restore all your files and data and enjoy using your device as usual.

Absolutely wonderful help. About a week and a half ago, I installed Oreo on a ZTE axon 7. It was an SD card upgrade so it wiped out everything on the phone. Yesterday my flashlight stopped working. Direct access from the pull-down told me I didn’t have a flashlight installed. When I installed an app to operate the flashlight thinking it was an Oreo problem, the app told me that my camera has stopped working. I thought I would have to reinstall Oreo and wipe out everything and start over again. However I followed the instructions to clear the camera app cache, which didn’t work, then I followed the instructions to clear the data from the camera app. thank you for your wonderful advice clearing the data on the camera app worked!

I had lost use of my camera for about 2 months. I tried everything on my own, contacted LG tech and they told me that I would have to do your final solution. Instead when I found you today, solution number 4 did the job. In fact I’m so happy with your work I would be glad to make a donation to the cause. Please let me know how I can make a donation. Rene

I’m so glad I found this article. Just had my phone updated and my camera “PRO” mode will just close the app everything I switch to it! Save me a lot of headache because I was at the point where I was trying to contact Google about the issue. THANKS!

Tried all options (eexcluding ‘factory reset’). Nothing helped resolve “unfortunately camera has stopped”. Downloaded two different camera apps from Playstore & get same results. Don’t know what to do now? Any further suggestions would be appreciated. Thx for supplying all the info…maybe it will help someone else.

None of the solutions worked for my phone. This is the second time ive had this issue. The first time it just fixed itself woth the hour or so. This time I’ve done everything recommended here and nothing worked. I don’t know what to do.

Okay. For those who still are facing the abrupt camera crash after taking a photo, it is likely a permission issue(owner and group messed up) on DCIM folder on the internal SD card. So, to confirm it, on adb shell, check logcat command’s output. If it says, permission denied for the file created(JPEG file) for the photo taken, then it’s indeed the issue. So, rename the DCIM folder to something else like DCIM1. Now, close the camera app if already open and reopen, take a photo, and see the crash won’t happen. And there is a new DCIM folder created with your photo file(JPEG) in it. Once done, move the contents of DCIM1 to the new DCIM folder so that your gallery will show all the old photos, etc. If you need root access to change permissions, etc of folders within DCIM, switch to root(su command), if your device is rooted. Or else figure out some other way to get the permissions to move them.

DCIM should have media_rw as the owner and group instead of system, etc as the owner and/or group. Check it with ls -l output.

Here are the steps I followed to stop “Camera has stopped” and “Camera keeps stopping” issue on Android 7.1.2 DarkROM :

PS: I suspected it’s NOT a hardware issue as it worked a day before. There was some file system permission, SELinux, etc issue as I was experimenting with my Android Dark ROM in recovery mode. Thereafter, the Camera app and all the third-party Camera apps on Google Play started behaving weirdly! So, “logcat” became the savior! And I got the idea of renaming the DCIM folder from another blog post where Screenshot was not being saved, and solution to that was to rename “Pictures” folder to something else and try.

Thanks guys! I am using a samsung s6 and got the latest update on 3rd of june after which my camera pro function stopped working 🙁 used your steps and deleting camera files finally fixed the pro function!

I tried all the solution but none of them worked. If I open the camera app I only get the front camera with no option to switch… When this started happening a restart would fix it, but now nothing does… anyone else seen this issue?

I am using a moto g4 plus …. After nougat update my camera was unfortunately stop working . I use every step to fixed it out but still it’s making problem . Every time whenever I open a camera after a 5sec something black started blinking on screen and then stop working . What should I do.

I am using a moto g4 plus …. After nougat update my camera was unfortunately stop working . I use every step to fixed it out but still it’s making problem . Every time whenever I open a camera after a 5sec something black started blinking on screen and then stop working . What should I do.

I tried all of these Solutions none of them worked. Then I remembered that the last time I tried to use my flashlight app it didn’t work. So I turn on the flashlight and it worked turned it off. Then immediately camera app started working again.